Garrison Nights
by TheThirdPhiladelphiaVireo
Summary: When Katie was all alone at the Garrison, she took comfort in the memories she and her family shared.


Nights at the Garrison were long. When the voice came over the loudspeakers, announcing that it was lights out, the silence that fell over the entire building came so quickly it was like a candle being snuffed out. When Katie would sneak onto the roof, scouring her machines for alien transmissions and anything that could help her find her family, she could almost hear echoes of memories playing through her head.

When she was on that roof, she was never "Pidge Gunderson". She could only let her mask drop when she was all alone, or risk giving herself away. She found solace in those quiet moments when she could almost pretend nothing had changed since the day her family had first taken off for Kerberos.

 _"Katie!"_

 _It was her brother calling for her when she was eight years old. Even back then it seemed she had a penchant sneaking away when things got to be too much for her. That day, she had brought in a carefully constructed rocket model to school for show and tell. Her eyes had sparkled as she had recounted how her father had helped her make it, and how he was a real life astronaut at the Garrison. But later that day, at snack time, while the teacher was distracted, Samantha Barnes had snatched it with her gross, jelly-stained figures._

 _"Give that back!" Katie had fumed and jumped to try and snatch it from where it was being held just out of reach. She had always hated being short._

 _"Chill out, chicken legs! Geez, we'll give it back." Samantha's flippancy as she had held the rocket just out of the other girl's reach had not been appreciated. The other kids who had gathered around had voiced their agreement._

 _Katie had felt a flush spreading from her cheeks to the rest of her face. "It's mine! Give it back!" She had shoved Samantha roughly and the other girl had stumbled, model tumbling from her grasp. With a sound that had seemed to echo around the entire classroom, it had crashed to the ground._

 _For a few seconds, no one in the classroom had moved. Then the teacher, having finished chewing a couple of boys for throwing crayons at each other, had ghosted across the classroom._

 _"What's happened here?"_

 _"Samantha stole my rocket and now it's broken!" Katie had exclaimed._

 _The teacher then had turned to Samantha. "Is this true?"_

 _Samantha's eyes had turned glassy and her lip had begun to wobble. "I was just looking! I was going to give it back, but then she pushed me and it slipped!"_

 _As other kids in the classroom had returned to their antics, the teacher had simply rubbed her temples and had made the two girls apologize to each other. The damage had been done, however, and the fragile rocket's wings had snapped off and its tip had broken._

 _Coming home from school, Pidge had immediately rushed up to her room, rocket stuffed in her bag. Then, she had climbed out of her window onto the roof._

 _"Kaaaatie!" It was her brother again. "If you're not gonna answer, I'm coming in!"_

 _Katie buried her face in her arms, curling in on herself. She heard her door creak open and footsteps across the floor._

 _"Katie?" Her brother poked his head out the window. "You okay?"_

 _Katie grumbled._

 _"Okay, I'll take that as a no." Matt carefully maneuvered his way through the window onto the roof. "Scooch over, will you? Don't worry, I won't tell mom that you come up here."_

 _Katie grunted and complied. She kept her eyes fixedly on the horizon where the sun was slowly sinking. She and Matt stayed up there for a while, the sound of the breeze blowing through wind chimes echoing throughout the neighborhood._

 _"Soooo… Do you want to talk about what's up?"_

 _At his mention of her sadness, Katie could feel fresh, hot tears spilling over her cheeks. Her brother's eyes widen and he scrambled to comfort her. He placed a hand on her back and rubbed it in soothing circled. "It's okay, it's okay, and we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."_

 _Katie took deep breaths, trying to calm herself down, and shook her head vehemently. She sniffed and gulped, readying herself to talk. "I- I...Samantha Barnes broke my rocket at school today. And she called me chicken legs."_

 _Matt furrowed his brow. "What happened? Did she get in trouble?"_

 _Katie shook her head and Matt pulled her into a hug. "Don't worry, Katie. I'm sure that we can fix it, maybe if Dad can help…"_

 _Katie looked up hopefully. "You think?"_

 _Matt smirked. "I know. There's nothing that Dad can't do when he puts his mind to it, and there's no way he wouldn't do everything he could to fix that rocket."_

 _Katie burrowed herself into her older brother's chest, grinning widely. "Thanks Matt!"_

 _He patted her on the back. "Anytime, squirt. And about the "chicken legs" thing, with you perched up here, you're more like a pigeon than a chicken."_

 _Katie wormed out his grasp and punched him in the arm. "Shut up!"_

 _Her brother threw his arm back laughing and moved to go back through the window. "Come on, dinner's almost ready, pigeon. Let's get those hands washed."_

It was when the sun started to peek out from under the mountain range in the distance that Katie realized she had spent the whole night on the roof reminiscing. She took a shaky breath and removed her headphones from her head. It was time to go back to being Pidge Gunderson. She hoped that one day, she could find her family and stop only seeing them in memories during stolen time.


End file.
